Project: Hug House
Architects: React Architects
Location: Paros Island, Greece
Area: 1,614 sqft
Photographs by: George Messaritakis
Hug House by React Architects
The Hug House is a low-lying house placed in the Agios Ioannis Detis area on the island of Paros in Greece.
This 1,614 square feet home was designed by the Greek studio React Architects on a staggering 118,403 square feet plot that is shared between this and another house. Besides the plot, the houses also share a courtyard and a swimming pool, all of which are surrounded by a stone wall that “hugs” them, thus protecting the inhabited space.
‘A hug is a form of physical intimacy, universal in human communities, in which two or more people put their arms around the neck, back, or waist of one another and hold each other closely’.
The work is situated at the Aghios Ioannis Detis location on the island of Paros. It has an eastwards orientation, with a view towards the sea and the Naoussa bay. The area is under a special protection order, and adjacent to it the Environmental Park of Aghios Ioannis Detis has been created.
The complex consists of two buildings with a shared open-air space and a swimming-pool. The large mass of a single building is broken down into two and is harmoniously adapted to the terrain. The masses are laid out facing the view, and the central courtyard has been created between them, adapted to the slope of the terrain and protected from the north winds.
